title: Mercury, pets' and hair: baseline survey of a priority environmental pollutant using a noninvasive matrix in man's best friend.
abstract: Pet cats and dogs have been successfully used as indicators of environmental pollution by a great variety of chemicals, including metals. However, information on mercury (a well know priority environmental pollutant) concentrations in household pets tissues and/or organs is scarce. Thus, in the present work we quantified total mercury (Hg(Total)) in blood and hair samples from twenty-six household dogs. The obtained results disclose relatively low levels of total mercury in the surveyed dogs, with values ranging from 0.16 to 12.38 ng g(-1) in blood; and from 24.16 to 826.30 ng g(-1) in hair. Mercury concentrations were independent of gender, age and diet type. A highly significant positive correlation was established between total mercury in blood and hair, validating the latter as a surrogate, non-invasive matrix for mercury exposure evaluation. Additionally, the obtained blood to hair ratio (200) is similar to the one described for humans reinforcing the suitability of dogs as sentinels. Overall, the determination of total mercury levels in dogs' hair samples proved to be a good screening method for the estimation of mercury burden in this species. We propose the quantification of Hg(Total) in hair as a screening method for sentinels like household pets to be performed in routine veterinary visits.
authors.affiliation: Departmento de Biologia & CESAM, Campus Universitário Santiago, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal, anasousa@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Ana C A
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Sousa
authors.forename: Isa Sofia de Sá
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.forename: Bruna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vilhena
authors.forename: Lisete
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: Amadeu M V M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: António J A
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Nogueira
authors.forename: Ana I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Lillebø
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D004285:Dogs; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D008628:Mercury